Nacap Australia is pleased to be one of three finalists shortlisted for the prestigious Quanta Innovation Award. Nacap, a proud Quanta Services company, has designed an innovative pipe dryer which enables jeeping to continue in moist conditions and even light misty rain. This innovation has now received attention across the Quanta group and has implications for the construction industry globally.

Previously in order to dry pipe wet from dew or rain, Nacap used foam mattresses and rags and relied on ambient temperatures to dry excess moisture. On Nacap’s current 186km pipeline project in the Gippsland area of Victoria, ambient temperatures were often not rising high enough to dry pipe naturally, hindering lowering in until the next day. With construction costing thousands of dollars per day, Nacap realised a solution had to be made to ensure project deadlines were met.

The Nacap project management team felt the best solution was a unit that could supply sufficient heated air to dry the pipe long enough for jeeping activities to be carried out. They knew it had to be towed behind the pipe layer, strong and robust, simple to operate and effective to produce enough heat and air volume to dry the pipe in a single pass.

To make this happen, the team came up with a design with two major components – a blower or dryer unit with power supply and ducting and manifold to join to the pipe.

The benefits of maintaining construction productivity and client satisfaction with this technology for the current pipeline construction in Gippsland have been enormous for Nacap.

Sharing this technology with sister companies across the Quanta group is important for maximising best practice for Quanta clients and the construction industry as a whole.